Hello, I am trying to download my previous year return, but turbo tax is telling me i need to pay again. so I paid 39.99 for the service but now it wont let me..

[mesquitebean]

You didn't finish explaining your situation above, so I don't know what you were going to say.

You don't have to pay twice.   If you paid for your 2017 return last year in PLUS or higher, then you would still have free access to it.

What happened initially?   Did you find your 2017 return in your account, but when you tried to download the 2017 return PDF, did it say you had to pay?   If so, that tells me that you did not use a paid product last year in PLUS or higher.  So it asked you to pay to unlock the 2017 return, which normally requires an upgrade of a 2018 return to PLUS (19.99.)

So what did you recently purchase for 39.99?   Did you start a 2018 return and upgraded to Deluxe by mistake?  To unlock a prior Free Edition return only requires an upgrade to PLUS (19.99) unless you need to use Deluxe for some other situations in your current 2018 return.
And did you pay by credit/debit card and did the charge go through?   You cannot use the option to pay later out of the Federal refund for this unlocking purpose.

[Dembeats]

After looking it looks like I bought the 2018 basic turbotax program for 39.99. The only reason I bought it was because I couldn't find an option to upgrade to the PLUS online while trying to get my PDF. I went through the support help which said there should be an option on the left side of the screen that says "Upgrade" or it would be under "My info". There was no such option, and I had tried to find it on both my PC, and mobile device. I understand that I just bought 2018's tax return so I'll use that for 2018 return.

[mesquitebean]

That should qualify to unlock the prior returns, but it won't be automatic.  See my answer below on how to reach Customer Support to ask for the unlock.

[Dembeats]

Awesome, thank you for the help.

[mesquitebean]

You're welcome.  Good luck.

[mesquitebean · Accepted solution]

If you purchased a 2018 desktop edition, that should qualify to unlock previous years returns.  But you will need to contact TurboTax Support to ask them to unlock the prior returns, since the unlock will not be automatic between the two different platforms.

Use the form at the link below to schedule a call back, or it may provide a number.  Hours are 5AM-5PM Pacific (8AM-8PM Eastern) Mon-Fri.

Where the form asks what product you are using, be sure to choose CD/download.

https://support.turbotax.intuit.com/contact